What is making Alpha 2+ unbalanced?

Yeah, it seems to me that Alpha+3 kind of made it so Germany HAS to do Barbarossa instead of Sealion.  I mean, Sealion is still doable if Germany is able to build up enough stuff and kills the Royal Navy, but with the new rule allowing Russia to attack when London falls, it will be much harder on Germany.  At least with Alpha+2, Germany could have a round to build up against the Russians.  I think that Alpha+3 kind of forces Germany into a more historical route.

It does appear more and more now that the British curiser in sz91 will survive to UK1, so the question becomes, if it is going to be there on UK1 how do you use it? Or more specifically how does it help the British naval position in the eastern Med?

@Cmdr:

But you wont get Washington.

For one, there’s already units in the US, all of which can be in DC if need be.  There’s the British in Canada.  British ships to block the way, American ships to prevent the landing from ever happening too. (6 Aircraft already on hand, what’s it cost to put 3 carriers in the water to add all those fighters too?  48 IPC?  Leaving what, 22 IPC?  Another 2 fighters for scrambing!)

You will have the effect of pulling all the Americans out of the Pacific for a round, however.  If that is your goal.

True, it could be prevented, bringing your turn 4 fleet to sz 89 (G.O.Mexico) which puts it 2 turns from Hawaii, or the W. Coast, with those carriers in the East coast, I just prevented a build in the west coast. Those carriers will be 2 turns from Hawaii if they go that way. Seems like it would be a major disruption for a planned USA Pacific first approach, buy Japan 2 additional worry free turns, and even permit the sacking of Either India or Australia before the US could thwart them.

All this by simply sliding a few boats already in the water to another spot in the water. True, It would buy Russia 2 turns as well as my transports would be out of position…but given that Pacific first is your favored approach, taking your attention from the Pacific seems warranted.

Since the U.S. does not start with one of the objectives: (5 of the 7 islands one) They are likely to collect 77….then factor in that when they do take one of the islands to get the 5, they typically have lost the Philippines objective, so they will be at 75-77 (if they have Brazil). I haven’t seen them reach 82 in 4 games of Alpha 2.

I’d have to agree that Kamikazee just makes no sense on offense, in terms of game play.  I believe the idea is to add extra defense to Japan, since they are out numbered 4 to 1 (China, England, ANZAC and America vs Japan).

Had have only 2 global games so far…  but both have been Allied victories.  I have yet to play the Axis as of yet.  both times Berlin fell because A. Demark was lightly defended once the Americans and British had fleets.    and B.  Berlin was lightly defended because all resources Axis resources were in Belgium, Normandy ,  and the eastern front.

When I play the Axis I think I need to make sure I can counter any land invasion in force rather than straight coastal defend.

I think that a Good Soviet Player will definitely defend through turn 4 when the US is in the war in Europe or at least has a fleet in SZ 109 or SZ 110.  I’m not sure that the balance with Japan is all that good since an experienced player can do so much damage with 19 planes in Alpha 2.  But since Japan is so far away from the Soviet union and the axis players waited till turn 4 or later to attack the soviet union,  my view of balance with the Japanese is tainted.

Seems extremely hard to get the Axis to defeat the allies unless they roll extremley well whereas the Allies can roll badly again and again and still pull it out.  This could also be the relationship between IPC’s as the Allies definitely can waste units and rebuild especially the Americans.

I really don’t like the NO’s for America so much.  its just too many NO’s for the US that are very difficult for the Axis to hit.  Maybe remove the Central /Western/Eastern 5 IPC NO .

Again we’ve only done 2 Global games so far.

the occasional cruiser

Yea the ones you start with, because I doubt you’ll be building others.

I build A CV and 2 Ftrs each turn. 3 tech rolls first turn (using AA50 tech tokens) netted me Jet Fighters  :-D.  By US4 I had 3 (soon to be 4) CVs outside SF with 5 Ftrs and a Tac.  2 CVs with 4 Ftrs in the Atlantic.  When I ramped up to 82 IPCs then comes the simultaneous transport build on both sides (more on Atlantic, KGF, imo) along with inf for a USA 5 or USA D-Day.  This way you ensure fleet support for your transports.  Learned my lesson a long time ago in AA50 when my opponent sacked his air force but completely decimated my D-Day fleet setting me back 3 turns.

I’ve also considered doing an Strat Bomber/Ftr build, but the new Alpha+1 rules kind of change that.  The idea would be to knock out Germany’s ability to produce frankly anything, along with killing the Luftwaffe exactly how the US actually did it: using the 8th Air Force to ‘escort’ (in quotes because they were really hunting the Luftwaffe) the bombers and take out the German fighters.  Haven’t tested this though cause it has 2 downfalls: longer time until USA gets D-Day going, and also practically leaves the USA in the dust fleet wise against Japan, which you CAN NOT do now with the new VC rules.